From change after buying coffee to noticing ol’ Lincoln staring up at you from the sidewalk, how many times have you passed on a penny?

This little copper coin that many people can’t be bothered with is helping to change the world and Fenton High School’s peer mediators, who have been collecting Pennies for Peace during all lunch periods since October.

“We brought the idea to the kids because a big part of peer mediation is to promote peace so we thought we would take that outside the classroom to help promote peace in the world,” said Lisa Raufeisen, school phycologist and peer mediation co-sponsor.

The goal of Pennies for Peace is to educate American children about the world beyond their backyards; to show them that one person, one penny at a time, can make a global positive impact. In Central Asia, a penny can buy a pencil, $1 per month can educate a child and $3 can buy a school uniform.

The idea to have Fenton peer mediators collect Pennies for Peace came from the group’s sponsors. Inspiration also came in the form of Greg Mortenson’s book, “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time,” which was read as part of a faculty book club.

Pennies for Peace is a program of Central Asia Institute, an organization that focuses on community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in the remote mountain regions of Central Asia. Mortenson’s book outlines the programs and needs that the nonprofit provides and fulfills. The author believes that through education, especially for girls, we can fight extremism, which can become a breeding ground for terrorists.

“This book makes you see the bigger picture,” said Kim Ziemianin, school counselor and peer mediation co-sponsor. “You get really fired up when you see an example of someone who is truly giving of themselves for humanity. What this man is doing is unbelievable.”

The peer mediators didn’t set a fundraising goal; they just wanted to collect pennies and make a donation. Students, faculty and some parents have almost filled an entire water cooler water jug. Tuesday was the last day of lunch period collections.

“The whole campaign is that everybody can help out a little bit, everybody can give at least a penny,” Raufeisen said. “Students have regularly been giving whatever change they have after buying lunch. We have great kids here who are always happy to help.”

Speaking of kids who are always happy to help, the Fenton peer mediators are a group of trained students who help their fellow students deal with disagreements at school.
Peer mediators meet with feuding students and first focus on what the two students have in common. They then work toward finding a peaceful resolution that everyone can feel good about.

“It’s kids helping kids,” Ziemianin said. “Kids are more willing to open up to other kids and can relate to them on a different level so I feel this is a fabulous and integral part of our school. Kids are learning how to work through problems, how to negotiate a solution, and even how to agree to disagree. Pennies for Peace was a great program to support because it goes hand in hand with what the peer mediators are doing: Solving conflict peacefully instead of using violence.”

To make a donation to the penny drive, call Raufeisen at (630) 860-4923 or Ziemianin at (630) 860-4920.

“Through this program, our students are getting an awareness of not taking education for granted and realizing how fortunate they are,” Ziemianin said. “Getting an education is something we take for granted, we just have it, it’s here, but education is so revered in that part of the world that we wanted kids to realize how lucky they really are to get an education and how important it was to help others get one too.”

For more information about the overall Pennies for Peace program, visit, www.penniesforpeace.org, or call (406) 585-7841.

“When you look at other countries, you don’t realize the power of a penny there because nothing here only costs a penny,” Raufeisen said. “This program is helping to open our students to more areas of the world that are less fortunate than us and teach them to be more empathic to those suffering throughout the entire world.”

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